Pierre Frey in Paris

While in Paris last month, Stefan and I had a rare treat. After stopping by the Pierre Frey showroom on the rue du Mail, we walked over to the headquarters to see their archives. What we were surprised to learn is that Pierre Frey archive doesn't just contain Pierre Frey fabrics but fabrics that they have collected from all periods and styles so that they have a reference when creating new fabrics and collections.

The main highlight was seeing the fabrics that the company made for the renovation of the second floor private are at the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Above is just one of them.

This is the vintage fabric that was used for inspiration.

This is another one of the finished printed fabrics.

On the left is the new version and the vintage fabric is on the right.

I'm not sure if you can see the mark near the flower but it is the mark that the printer would have used as a marker when they laid the wooden blocks on the fabric. Since the new fabric was printed by a machine, it wouldn't need this mark but it was kept to preserve the look of the original. It is this type of detail that I'm sure won Pierre Frey the job!

Many of the old fabrics were most likely bedding originally.

The toiles were the most interesting since they depicted life as it was at the time they were created.

But they also had more deco fabrics as well.

This blue toile reminds me of the blue color of the toile in Carolina Herrera Junior's home in Spain.

It was amazing that the colors of the archival fabrics are still bright!

The brocades were especially bright and beautiful.

The crewelwork was also bright and beautiful!

I can't remember but this might be a newer printed fabric. I'll have to find out.

This hand painted canvas was absolutely gorgeous and probably my favorite thing in the collection!

Stefan and I were surprised and delighted that they had clothing in the collection as well.

The embroidery on this jacket was really beautiful.

This dress had faded a little but was still no less beautiful!

The archives were amazing and we definitely felt like kids in a candy store! Each drawer held something even more amazing than the last!

There were many Indian print fabrics as well.

I love the colors on this one.

There seemed to be a lot of reds and blues in the collection.

We loved the watercolor look of the design on this fabric.

This piece was probably part of a bed.

This is an example of an early model that would have been shown to the homeowner to show them how the fabrics would look in a room!

The old books were full of even more treasures!

Even the outsides are amazing!

I personally would love to frame some of these but they are actually still used to create fabrics.

The books might have been used as salesman samples. Patrick Frey, the son of Pierre Frey, attends auctions to buy vintage textiles to add to the collection.

Because they were out of the light, the colors stayed very bright.

I'll have to find out if the reproduced this fabric because I love the color combination!

The wallpaper books were even more amazing than the fabric books!

We were dying over all of them!

This one was especially beautiful!

And of course the vintage chinoiserie wallpapers were to die for!

I want to thank everyone at Pierre Frey in Paris who took time out of their day to show us around. Stefan and I had an amazing time and learned so much about textiles. Pierre Frey is also very lucky to have Sophie Rouart as their archivist. She was previously the curator of the Musee de Toile de Jouy and wrote an amazing book on Toile called La Toile de Jouy. The original is a collector's item so luckily there is a another edition that I highly recommend if you would like to learn more about textiles and toile. Or you could just book yourself a trip to France! Up to you!